Wednesday, March 22, 2006

COMPASSION, ANYONE?

Two days ago, the New York Times published a lengthy article on the rapidly worsening prospects for black men in America, without ever mentioning the word "immigration." The Center for Immigration Studies has now released a compelling study by the meticulous Steve Camorata demonstrating that immigration is powerfully correlated with declining job prospects for the least educated native-born - who are sad to say disproportionately African-American.

The data are so shocking that at first it is hard to accept that they can possibly be true:

In the five years from 2000 to 2005, 8 million immigrants entered the United States - half of them illegal.

In those five years, unemployment among the least-educated native-born rose by 1 million.

Labor force participation by the least-educated native-born dropped by a further 1.5 million.

Only 9% of the net adult new jobs created over the past 5 years went to the native born - even though the native-born accounted for 61% of the increase in the adult population.

I know how keenly President Bush cares about the difficulties of the African-American poor. Steve Camorata has proven (again!) that this president's immigration policies have inflicted great harm on this population. Is it not time for a rethink? Beginning at the very least with enforcement of existing laws?